It helped the Wissahickon High junior was in the marquee pairing for the Suburban One League Golf Championships. As the defending Suburban One American Conference titleholder and owning the third-best scoring average in the league this year, he was right where he was supposed to be, and wanted to be.

Griffin was paired with Upper Dublin’s Andrew Carber, the top-rated player in the conference based on scoring average; defending District One champion Zach Herr of Council Rock North; and C.B. East senior Stewart Rickenbach.

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Rickenbach would shoot the low round of the day, a 3-under-par 69, to win the overall title. Griffin shot a 1-over 73 and for the second year in a row, finished third overall and won the American Conference individual crown.

Considering he has been through all this before, reaching the state tournament a year ago as a sophomore and playing in national junior tournaments this summer, the league championship still provided some jitters for Griffin.

“I definitely felt nervous for the first three holes or so,” said Griffin, who parred the first eight holes before making a bogey on the ninth. “I just didn’t feel right at the time. I was leaving everything to the right.

“I haven’t played in a tournament in about a month-and-a-half. I have been so used to high school golf, go out and play nine holes. This a whole different story. You play 18 holes, people are watching you.”

And people were watching this foursome. Of the four, Rickenbach won the overall and the Continental Conference title, Griffin got the American Conference and Herr shot a 74 to win the National Conference.

Tom Fischer of Hatboro-Horsham shot a 72 to place second in the tournament and the Continental.

In all, 10 local players finished among the top 40, therefore earning a berth in the District One Championship at Turtle Creek Golf Course, which begins next Tuesday. Carter Field and Dave Pontari, both from Plymouth Whitemarsh, finished tied for 10th overall and tied for second in the American Conference after each shot a 79. In all, five Colonials qualified for districts.

“It’s a big thing for me and for the whole team,” Field said of the team’s success. “It’s pretty cool for our whole team to get to experience this.”

Wissahickon’s Jesse Hunsicker and Upper Dublin freshman Michael Reed-Price each had an 80 for a tie for 10th overall. A trio of local players tied for 16th at 82: Carber from Upper Dublin, Alex Acciani of North Penn and PW’s Zak Glaser. Colonials teammate Evan Beaty was tied for 26th after an 83 and PW senior Dom Aprile posted an 85 then qualified by surviving a six-way playoff for the final two district spots, making par on the first playoff hole.

Griffin would follow up his bogey on nine with another at the 10th, making birdies at 12 and 14 to get him back to even before a late bogey. At the 18th, he had a decent look at birdie to bring him back to level par.

“That’s pretty good, yeah,” he said of the 73. “It started out pretty good.

“I was missing easy putts, though, missed some birdie putts.”

Still, Griffin was not just looking to do well Monday. After getting through districts and regionals and finishing tied for 19th in the state a year ago, he cannot help but look down the road a few weeks.

“It definitely feels a lot better that I actually accomplished my goal of getting (to states last year),” he said, “but I think it also puts a little more pressure on getting there again because it’s so difficult getting through, district especially.”

Field had also qualified for districts last year and knew what it took to get back again as a junior.

“I was thinking about the number needed and I felt I was below that, but I wanted to put a good number out there,” said Field, who shot an 81 at leagues last year. “I wanted to improve on last year. I got thinking too much about it and I lost focus.”

For Aprile, this was his first trip to the league championship, and advancing to the next round was paramount in his thoughts. The senior started on the 12th hole, and double-bogeyed the par-3 11th to complete his round, wondering if he had made it. His 85 put him right on the cut line, along with five others, and only two spots available.

The group of six teed off the par-4 first, with Aprile hitting his tee shot down the left side, putting his approach on the right side of the green to about 20 feet. He sent the birdie putt five feet past the hole but drained the come-backer to lock in more golf for next week.

“I just knew off the tee I had to hit a good tee shot,” Aprile said. “I didn’t hit it bad, just hit it a little left. I wanted to get it on the green, two-putt and get my par. I thought par would do it.”

Pennsbury won the team wild card spot with a combined score of 311 among the low four scores. PW came in second at 323, but this means the Colonials still have work to do if the team is to also make districts. Currently, Upper Dublin is 13-0 and has locked up at least a share of the American Conference title. PW hosts the Cards Tuesday at Green Valley. Should the Colonials defeat UD by more than three strokes in that match, and then beat Wissahickon Wednesday, PW would get the league’s automatic bid to districts in front of the Cards.